This blog will have restaurant reviews (mostly in Edinburgh) but also other foodie stuff – recipes and ingredients, commentary, food politics and so on. I also hope to be able to post a bit more regularly than I do here.

My first real posts on Bistros and Beetroots are about courgettes – and what to do with too many of them.

My wife Anne really likes the atmosphere in the Witchery restaurant in Edinburgh so, for her birthday, we arranged a family meal there. The Witchery has several rooms but the Secret Garden is the most atmospheric. You go downstairs to a panelled room with an amazing painted ceiling and doors onto a garden.

The menu is quite short and, in truth, I didn’t really fancy any of the starters from the a la carte menu. Rather, I asked for a starter from the fixed price menu – scallop with broad bean, chorizo and spoot (razor clam) cassoulet.

Scallop with broad bean, chorizo and spoot (razor clam) cassoulet

This looked very attractive but, sadly, the quality of the dish didn’t live up to its looks. The scallop was like a rubber ball – seriously overcooked and if there were any spoots in the cassoulet, they weren’t at all obvious. The chorizo and broad beans were OK but overall, this was a very disappointing dish.

For our mail course, we all had Lamb Wellington – a fillet of lamb wrapped in all manner of things (Serrano ham, mushroom mousse, etc) in a pastry case.

Lamb Wellington

This came perfectly cooked and was met with general acclaim. However, the problem with this dish in general is that you have to use a cut of meet that cooks very quickly and these tend to be a bit lacking in taste. This was no exception – perfectly cooked but overall I found it a wee bit bland.

I didn’t have a pudding but tasted both the chocolate tart and the mascarpone and passion fruit trifle. Both were very nice.

The Secret Garden is a lovely restaurant – the service was impeccable and the atmosphere was great. It’s worth a visit for the atmosphere alone but, sadly, if my meal was anything to go by, you don’t go there for the food. Prices are high (£10 for my starter, £30 for main) and for these prices you can eat far better in Edinburgh.

My wife is still recovering from a knee operation so it’s easier for her to go places where we can drive to the door and park the car nearby. That’s not so easy in Edinburgh so we decided to go out of town for Sunday lunch. Our first though was the Alan Ramsay hotel in Carlops but that’s still ‘closed for refurbishment’, which seems to be taking an awful long time.

So I googled nearby restaurants and came up with the Old Bakehouse in West Linton, the next village west from Carlops. It had recently been taken over by Tony Singh, who had Oloroso in Edinburgh and who (I’m told) is a chef on the telly. The menu online looked interesting so we thought that we’d go for it.

West Linton is a delightful village between Edinburgh and Biggar which has retained a lot of character and old properties. The Old Bakehouse is on the Main Street and has been a restaurant for a long time. It’s been refurbished with a ‘country look’ – beams, white painted stone and, I’m glad to say, quite a lot of light.

Window boxes at the Old Bakehouse

We arrived just before one – it wasn’t very busy and we had a table in the Conservatory. The policy is to serve local beers (one I thoroughly approve of) so I had a bottle of one brewed in Peebles as my one and only drink.

Blonde beer from the Peebles brewery

As we often do at lunchtime, we ordered two starters rather than a starter and a main course. Mine were haggis, neep and tattie pakora (real fusion food), followed by summer rolls. Anne started with asparagus tart, followed by prawn cocktail.

My pakora was certainly different – basically, a potato ball with a core of haggis and a layer of jeeps. Served with a minty and a spicy dip. Tasty and very filling. I’m told the asparagus tart was very good – I certainly wasn’t offered a taste.

Haggis, neep and tattie pakora

Asparagus tart

Summer rolls had an Asian theme. Basically rice paper rolls stuffed with crispy vegetables, pork and prawns but with lots of fresh herbs that made them zing. They came with a chilli dipping sauce though they were so big, you couldn’t really dip them. The prawn cocktail was served with rocket – a good example although I must admit I find this dish a bit dull.

Summer rolls – pork, prawns and fresh herbs and vegetables

The Old Bakehouse was a great find for us and it deserves to do well. Excellent and imaginative food, a lovely setting, friendly staff and good service – what’s not to like? About £30 each for 2 starters each plus coffees. We’ll definitely be back.

I wrote about an evening meal that we had in the Anchor Hotel in Johnshaven last December where we really enjoyed the experience. We thought that we’d go back and check it out for lunch as we’ve plans to take some friends walking on the Aberdeenshire Coastal path that goes through the village. Johnshaven is a traditional East Coast fishing village with a few boats still landing crabs and lobsters.

The upstairs dining room is closed at lunchtime and meals are served in the bar. This is a proper bar rather than a dining room that serves beer – a mixture of local people in for a Sunday lunchtime drink and visitors to the village.

The last time I was there I had some wonderful lobster soup so I opted for that again – it really is superb – better then I’ve had in rather more expensive seafood restaurants.

Wonderful lobster soup

Anne ordered breaded mushrooms which were rather more substantial than she expected. I had a taste of these – a great combination of crisp coating and soft, melting mushrooms.

Breaded mushrooms

I tend not to eat a lot at lunchtime so I ordered two starters – classic calamari in batter was my other choice.

Calamari

This was fine – nicely cooked – it’s easy to get this dish wrong and end up with rubber rings in batter. But it was just calamari – I regretted not ordering one of the other fish dishes that were being delivered to other tables.

This was great pub food using local ingredients, unpretentious and not expensive. Friendly service – not particularly quick but we certainly weren’t in a hurry. Reasonably priced, although seafood is never cheap. We had two starters each and, with a drink, were about £14 each.

If you’re in the area, it’s worth a short diversion to Johnshaven. And, for coastal path walkers and TGO Challenge coast-to-coast walk finishers, it’s worth timing your arrival to have lunch in the pub.

About this blog

This blog is mostly reviews of restaurants in Edinburgh and elsewhere in Scotland but I also include some personal thoughts on foodie things and, occasionally, reviews of restaurants outside of Scotland.

About me

I’ve been interested in food since I was a student in St Andrews many years ago and discovered that the only way to eat well was to learn to cook. I’m now interested in all aspects of food – growing, cooking and eating.